Donagh Quinlan

Donagh Quinlan (1907-) was the leader of Fine Gael from 1950 to 1952, succeeding George Fahey and preceding Fintan O'Dowd.

Biography
Donagh Quinlan was born in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland in 1907. He came from a middle-class family, and he worked as a cigar store owner before being elected to the Dail Eireann in 1946 as a Fine Gael member. Quinlan was a member of a younger, more liberal generation of Fine Gael members, and he supported ending Fiachsteria through austerity measures rather than through continuing George Fahey's outdated policy of maintaining current expenditures and waiting out the crisis. Quinlan advocated for economic liberalism as opposed to the older Fine Gael politicians' paternalistic approach to the economy, and he was elected leader of Fine Gael in 1950 following Fahey's resignation. As party leader, Quinlan helped to transform Fine Gael into a more modern, progressive-conservative political party that was more acceptive of economic pragmatism and, at times, social liberalism. This new strand of Fine Gael ideology would only take form years later, however, as Fine Gael performed very poorly in the 1952 general elections, during which it virtually disappeared from the map. Quinlan decided to resign and pick fellow progressive Fintan O'Dowd as his successor rather than risk the reactionary wing returning to power, and he returned to the Dail Eireann.